Yes, you heard right. Cellaring is not just for wine anymore, many craft beer fans are storing their beers for future enjoyment in the hopes that the aging process will increase the flavor and complexity.
I do not have a tendency for high retention of beer in my home, if there is some good beer around, it is going to be enjoyed rather quickly. But even I realize that it can be beneficial to store away some goodies from time to time because they will get better with age, or I would like to get a “vertical” going. With those not familiar, a “vertical” is when you have the same beer but from different years, so you can try each year consecutively. Many special release stouts are meant for a vertical because it is interesting to taste the different nuances of the beer going from year to year.
Which beers should we age? Barleywines, imperial/barrel-aged stouts, strong ales, lambics. These beer are rich enough that they can handle change over time for the better. Everything else generally has too many hops and only a shelf-life of a few months.
How do I resist temptation to drink it while it ages? Yes, there will come a night where you feel like taking out something out of storage prematurely. Here’s a good tip….whatever you plan on cellaring buy at least 2 of. You can drink one of them fresh so you aren't wondering how it tastes and the suspense will not chip at your perseverance. If you drink one fresh, the suspense will then will turn into the desire of having another properly aged so you can compare and this helps reinforce your patience.
Store upright or on the side? Debatable, but overall, I believe upright is the way to go. The lambics and sours often have a wooden cork. You don't want the beer touching the cork while it stores. It could infuse the cork flavor, risk infection, and potentially dry out the beer. If it doesn't have a wooden cork, being kept on the side still risks some oxidation to the beer.
How do I cellar the beer? If you’re like me, you don't have the funds or room to spring for a beautiful climate-controlled cellar space or cooler. Maybe if I cut down on the barrel-aged beer for a few months, I could afford one... but that’s crazy-talk. So what to use? Buy an old mini fridge and set it to the desired temp, or multiple ones at different temps for different kinds of beer. Still too extravagant? Storing the beers in a box or space where the temperature is constant could work, or a cooler where you try to control and manipulate the temperature will also work. These things do not need to be meticulous but kept within a general degree range and they will age fine. Keep them out of sunlight and away from heating and cooling sources. Sunlight destroys beer and being around these devices result in unwanted temperature shifts.
What degree should I cellar them at? Ideally, the beer should be stored at the same temperature you would drink it! Easy enough, right? As a general rule, the lambics, sours, and lighter stouts can be kept at 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit/7-10 degrees Celsius. The barleywines, strong ales, old ales, big stouts I would keep around 50-55 degrees Fahrenheit/ 10-12.7 degrees Celsius.
How long should I cellar it? This is a good question and there’s no clear answer. Stouts could be aged anywhere from 1-5 years but maybe more. Some Lambics and sours can be aged much longer. I would definitely check forums and with other beer fans to see how they enjoyed a beer at a certain age to get a better idea. The forums at https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum can be a valuable resource by asking in threads that pertain to cellaring or the particular style you are cellaring. Don't see it? Start your own thread, the people on here are very helpful and you will get some good responses coming in. There are a lot of really educated people on here as well, including cellarmen and huge craft beer nerds that have cellared a lot of beers and know the good times for each.
This is a nice general run-through for cellaring. It’s actually pretty easy and straightforward, the hard part is actually being patient with amazing beers in your house!
Cheers everyone! Please follow and/or upvote if you enjoyed this post!
Here’s my past post about Beer Serving Temperature if you’d like to hear more -
Interesting for a beer lover but you might end with a sour stomach...
Yea..those lambics...when aged a long time just get more funky and complex, but better bring a Maalox for those aged super-critters!
Just curious what is the longest aged beer have you had and did you notice a difference?
Cheers!
ian
The longest I have aged a beer has been 1-1.5 years. I have enjoyed beers from others that have been up to 10 years. With Lambics/Sours/Belgian, the funkiness and complexity really increase. With stouts, it can vary. What often happens is some flavors intensify and some fade. Like if you have smoked pepper barrel-aged stout, maybe after a year the peppers fade but reveal some great roastiness or maple that I did not taste before.
Interesting, I thought that once beer was in a bottle that it didn't age any further. Except to go stale. I might have to try this is we have a few beers that we brewed over the last few years still on shelves.
I’ve got around 50 bottles in my cellar. The oldest being a 2015 vintage of Founders KBS. I can’t wait to do a five year vertical.
I hope your 2015 is aged better than the one I had. All the flavor was gone.
Man do I love aged beers! What I've found to help me from drinking my aged beers is having a couple different friends age different years of the same beer to taste together later on. That way I can't drink mine or I will just be the ass that screwed up the vertical later on!
That's an awesome circle of accountability you have going on, something to aspire to!
Great post, I've never thought about aging beers, I tend to think of them as being better fresh but for certain types of beers I get how they could get better with age.
Don't hesitate to reach out and ask, I can help out if you are debating to store one or not!
If you build a beer cellar in our house I will kill you. I’m kidding. Maybe. 🙂
The cellar can line the walls of the nursery!
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I've tried to do this many times before. But, as you mentioned, it never fails and I drink them before I manage to actually save them. Even if I buy multiple, there always comes a time :)
Haha, you and I have that in common. I need like to lock mine up and give 4 other people keys, and we'll need to turn them all at the same time to unlock it, and then maybe I can age more! I was thinking of leaving it a trusted friends house who doesn't like beer (this part is important) and that may help too...?
That's a great idea! When I used to try, my girlfriend drank more than I do(which is impressive). She rarely ever drinks now, however, and we live in a single apartment rather than with a group of kleptos- so maybe it's a good time to give it a shot.
Very interesting has anyone actually had a beer after doing this? It would be nice to have some ideas of the best practices that people came up with after trial and errors. 🤔😃👍👍👍👍👏👏👏👏great post now let’s get some beers 🍻.
Oh yes! I have had hundreds. Just recently I had a Founders Kentucky Bourbon Stout (KBS) Vertical, which had each year from 2012-2017. Same style BA stout..6 different years...many variations in flavor through the years, I really applaud the person who had the patience to make this happen!
That’s awesome 👏 someone really had some patience with storing to do that.
Man I have to buddy up to some of your friends! Your posts kick ass on voting value! Well played. Regarding the storing, I’m like you, beer that I haven’t tried doesn’t last long at my house so I’d be hard pressed to store beer but I’ve seen a lot of the annual releases, the Abyss series from Deschutes is one and the Selkirk aged beer I just reviewed but it had already been aged since 2011 by the brewer and the bottle implored you to drink it! Combined with the fact I just had to dump 16 beers due to them going bad I’d be hesitant to store beer
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The Abyss series...yum yum yum
There are certainly beers that can be stored and others that cannot....IPAS/PAs have such a short shelf life relative to barrel-aged stouts, which you can age for years.
16 beers! What a bummer.
Yeah, I let them get too old, was a sad day
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